Other Business, Place of Worship Melbourne, FL – Sprinklers help limit damage in church arson fire February 22, 2015 viking210 On a day when students from her congregation were to learn about slain civil rights activists Harry and Harriette V. Moore, Bishop Jacquelyn Gordon found herself awakened by a phone call informing her that an arsonist set a small fire in her church and scrawled a swastika on a nearby wall. “To wake up to a call at 3:30 a.m. and find this, it’s mind-blowing,” said Gordon, standing near the blackened ruin of several chairs and furniture in one of the storage compartments at the New Shiloh Christian Center in Melbourne. The blaze, which left behind $5,000 in damages, set off an alarm about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Sprinklers were activated, which Gordon credits with keeping the fire from spreading to the nearby electrical room. The main sanctuary, housed in the same 125,000-square-foot building, was not affected by smoke or fire. Melbourne firefighters quickly contained the fire and discovered evidence of arson. Melbourne police did not immediately return calls about the case and whether it would be investigated as a possible hate crime. Police report that the vandals also broke into the electrical room, burning through locks and kicking in doors.
